Review: This Cat Gamed the Academic Publishing System and Earned High Marks on Google Scholar

Larry the cat's co-conspirators pulled a prank that highlighted a serious problem in scientific research.

Google Scholar is a wonderful research resource. The free service covers a huge amount of the global scientific publishing enterprise, encompassing peer-reviewed articles, books, reports, conference papers, and preprints. It's easy to use and accessible to anyone.

It also compiles citation counts as a rough indicator of a researcher's influence. Of particular interest to academicians and university administrators is a scholar's h-index. An h-index of 10, for instance, means a person has 10 papers with at least 10 citations each. The higher the h-index, the more influential the researcher's work.

A recent prank by the Northwestern University metascience graduate student Reese Richardson and the Cambridge University engineer Nick Wise shows the h-index can be easily gamed to produce nonsensical results. A young writer named Larry Richardson's recent articles on ostensibly abstruse mathematical issues earned him an h-index of 12. But "Larry Richardson" is a cat—briefly the world's most cited cat. The pranksters created a profile for Larry and uploaded 12 self-citing fake articles to the preprint site ResearchGate, which gave the kitty that impressive h-index.

Funny, yes, but highlighting a serious problem. Many top-ranked universities rely on citation counts when considering hiring or promotion. And over 60 percent, according to a February study of citation mills in Scientific Reports, obtained citation data from Google Scholar. Anyone want to hire a mathematically gifted feline?

Comments

[rbike]

The cat we call Hunter, who allows my wife and I to live in our house with him, is actually the best overseer you can have.

Sometimes you have to face the reality, no matter how free you think you are.

[tracerv]

Totally agree!

My owner is named Mimi. She runs the show at the tracerv abode.

[mad.casual]

Sometimes you have to face the reality, no matter how free you think you are.

I've always considered myself more of a liberator of people than a killer of cats.

[Chumby]

Spay or neuter all cat owners.

[Wizzle Bizzle]

You should probably stay AND neuter, given their proclivity for gender dysphoria.

[Vernon Depner]

Trap, neuter, and release for illegal aliens.

[AT]

The problem isn't the cat, the con, or the h-index.

The problem is this society's tendency - particularly in academia - of outsourcing its brain to whatever the internet (and the media) tells it.

But what can one expect from a society that no longer has any critical thinking skills? That was the first thing the progressives and marxists went after. And what's the result?

Not one but TWO generations of people who don't know which bathroom people should be using. And THREE that think that The Sun is angry at them and is warming their global unless they eschew air conditioning and recycle their sandals.

To say nothing of the political/elitist class that are exploiting all of this for their own person gain.

[Longtobefree]

Further proof the entire "university" system is now just a scam.
No federal funding of any kind for any reason.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Amen. Free money without accountability ruins everything.

Except me. People can send me all the money they want. It won't ruin me.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

More testing needed!

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Cite?

[Roberta]

...

Anyone want to hire a mathematically gifted feline?

Housebroken? No litter boxes at this institution.

[mad.casual]

But "Larry Richardson" is a cat—briefly the world's most cited cat.

Pretty sure he only has a 50/50 shot at being the world's most cited *living* cat... for now.